For 14 years the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, which was banned with a work ban, was under house arrest in his home country. Nevertheless, he made films with a regularity that ran at important festivals from Berlin via Cannes to Venice, where they were often awarded important prices. The films of the resistance are “three faces” or the Golden Bear winner “Taxi Tehran”, who offered the autocratic regime with subtlety and fine humor.
At least the travel restrictions have been canceled since 2023, Panahi can move freely again. However, he continues to make his films without official approval and under strict security measures-as well as a very nice anger that has accumulated over the years, especially after several detainees in the notorious torture prison in Evin. It is therefore absolutely understandable that Panahi in “It was just an accident“Over long distances, it is much more striking and less subtle. Nevertheless, it is a shame that with his moral ambivalent and also quite exciting scenario, he knows surprisingly little.
With a ko beaten maybe torture necht in the car, good advice is expensive …
A man, his wife and little daughter are on the way home when a dog suddenly jumps in front of the car. It is just a small accident, but it will have far -reaching consequences. The car is damaged and the father, who calls himself Rashid (Ebrahim Azizi), turns to a workshop in which he is recognized by one of the mechanics. At least Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) believes that he has recognized the man in Rashid who once tortured him in prison – although his eyes were always connected, so he can only go after the voice and after the squeak of his artificial leg.
Vahid follows Rashid, finds out where he lives – and takes him away with his van. But when he has already dug a pit in the desert for Rashid, Vahid gets quiet doubts as to whether he really got the right one. He therefore turns to a few more former prisoners (including even a prospective bride that joins in the wedding dress), who are also torn back and forth between the desire for revenge and doubt whether they really have the right man in front of them …
Own experiences with the torture jail
Just two years ago, Jafar Panahi was detained again in the Evin prison. He spent the days connected, the endless surveys of prison attendants or secret agents were delivered. Panahi understandably did not want to speak about whether he was tortured in a similar way to the characters in his new film, Panahi understandably. Shortly afterwards, work ban and house arrest were lifted, in a decision that is as arbitrary as those who branded him as the enemy of the regime many years earlier. “Kafkaesk” is the obvious term that comes up with the arbitrariness of the Iranian regime, and Panahi also thought of Beckett: When she and her prisoner in the desert in the desert away from Tehran, the director has his characters referred to his absurd-nihilistic piece “Waiting for Godot”.
It is one of the few multi -layered moments in a film that seems amazingly loud and striking for Panahi's standards. As much as here, Panahi has never been shouted, a nuanced representation of the potentially complicated moral pitfall is rarely takes place. Amazing, because even a small film like “The Shadow Hunter”, which ran into German cinemas at the beginning of the year and unfortunately went down there. There, too, a victim of torture tracks down his torture servant and wrestles with the decision what to do and the question of whether the revenge will actually redeem it, at least for a moment.
Sometimes without a headscarf
On the other hand, the scenes in which “it was what to do acccident” appear more successful in view of his brutally serious topic in an incredible manner in the Geradeheraus comedic. For example, when the kidnappers are given conscience when the little daughter of the likely torturer tries to call her father. The pregnant mother had passed out, and suddenly the kidnappers suddenly earned as an ambulance – they take the mother to the hospital and even pay the aka bribe for the sisters. Such ironic observations are known from Panahi, they have identified the special quality of its films for many years.
Unfortunately, too much of it can not be seen in “It what just on accident”. But they still exist, the subtle moments, such as casual pictures that show women without a headscarf what was previously unthinkable in Iran and Iranian cinema, but according to Panahi, however, testifies to a current change in society. Particularly pretty also a moment when bribery money is paid to police officers with the EC card-progress can be felt everywhere. It's just a shame that there are no longer any such scenes and this time Panahi is largely limited to telling a simple and striking story that only meets its qualities to a limited extent.
Conclusion: After years of detention, house arrest and ban on work, the Iranian director Jafar Panahi can now (halfway) work again. But the first film that was made under at least a little greater freedom falls off in his work. “IT what on Accident” has an angry (understandably), but remains surprisingly simple for the meta-papst Panahi and gets out of his interesting moral dilemma situation disappointingly little.
We saw “IT what just an accident” at the Cannes Film Festival 2025, where he celebrated his world premiere as part of the official competition.